May 11, 2010 History Meeting.
Jane Brumley brought a copy of pages from "Cavalier and Pioneers" about land grants on Knotts Island and I explained what the land grants were. Grants didn't mean that they were not on the land before the grants were issued. The person getting the grant sponsored a person or paid for passage of an individual and when he did he got 50 acres of land for that payment of that persons passage. The person coming in became a indenture servant for 7 years and then that person got 50 acres of land a suit of clothes and a bible. All the grants for Knotts Island were given in Virginia and that's where you find the record. Every man, women and child counted. One of the old paddle boats that took people to Norfolk was sunk just off where John Barnes lives. Fred Waterfield, Jimmy Waterfield and Jane Brumley got into conversation about this. We discussed the trips to Norfolk, The ships came to Munden Point, Knotts Island, Bells Island, Coinjock, Maple near Moyock and went up the inland waterway to Norfolk, however Jane thought that the dismal Canal might have been the route. We need to do a little more research on this. Family relationships were discussed. We all decided that all of us were kin to each other a few times, if we were on the Island before the 50's. I pointed out how in many cases barrels were used to pack crops, fish, ducks and other items to be sent to market. Using a stove pipe in the middle of the barrel to put ice in. I forgot until Jimmy mentioned it that there was a barrel factory on the left side of Jones' Store (the one at Cason Point. He also said that Voight Jones didn't have a store on the Island. It was Bonney. I was wrong about this. Ira (Voight's son) did build a store behind the Bonney Store. He remembered Bonney store burning down.